AD Server Upgrade from 2003 - 2008 - New Server

I turned off the old server this morning. I had about 30 pcs out of 90 which could not find the domain and they could not find the domain controller. They could ping the domain controller so i removed them from the domain and then added them and they now logon.

The issue i have now is that when anyone is logged in they cannot access any shares which are on our file server the shortcuts on their desktop say that the shortcut refers to a location which is unavailable.

also slowly but showily all the computers lost their internet settings which are applied by group policy at domain level. The LAN Settings were lost and the pcs could not see the proxy server so no internet.

how do i  make sure that the pc's are receiving the group policy settings from the correct server ? is it a case of GPUPDATE /FORCE on all PC's?

How do i fix the issue with clients not seeing our file server when the old primary dc is offline?

is this simply trial and error or is there a known fix?

time is not on my side so i have switched on the old dc to get things back up and running during the day.

Since i started the transfer over to the new server i have had many issues with users not being able to access their shares all shares are on a file server.

How do i setup a strong connection from the file server to the DC?

is there a way to create a trust i feel something is missing as when the old one is turned off all computers lose connection to the file server.

Could DNS be the problem?

Does the new server have all the same roles as the old one, esp. DHCP role?
Do you refer to the shares by the server name (\\servername\servershare) or are you using domain dfs (\\domainname\namespace)? If it is by servername, you will have to change that. Best way is to modify your logon script (if you map the shares that way?).

DHCP is managed on the Cisqo Switch Gateway for the school. We refer to shares as \\servername\shared-folder in the Domain but when accessing from our Admin Domain we use \\server-ip-address\shared-folder and credentials are entered by a script. all of the FSMO roles have been transferred successfully and dcdiag on the new server says everything is fine.

tonight i am going to switch off the old server and disjoin and re join any pc's which cannot see the server and then gpupdate to see if they are forced to obtain the correct GP Settings.

the other day all the pc's which were logging onto the domain lost their gp settings. but they received the network shares which are sent out via logon script. but when they were pressed the fileserver was not available.

Update

The \\Servername\Shared-Folder shares are all on our File Server which is staying online throughout the whole process.

Should i remove the File Server (Member Server) and Join it to the domain once the old server is switched off?

Will this mess up anything with exchange if i remove it and re join the domain?

Is there any other way of changing the DC of a client without taking it off of the domain?

This must be why it isnt available when the old one is offline it is still pointing to the old PDC

Last night i realised that the new PDC was not in the File Server Primary DNS Settings.

I entered this and all seemed to work fine.

Some PC's did not receive Group Policy Settings and i am now working on this.

I have Documents Redirection setup and all users have the correct permissions to the location and they have exclusive permissions to their my documents location but some get them and some dont.

it is very frustrating to troubleshoot as i cannot see any errors in event logs on clients or the server.

Thanks

pdc does time sync and thats a requirement foi a domain

with the shares have you tried removing the share and reestablish

how is the share done via your logon scripts ? as if it is you can get rid of the shares and use the logon script to recreate them it could be cached credentials from the old dc

today everything seems to be working fine shares and everything. There is a few users saying they have lost some work but i think they are now using the correct location for documents redir so i can live with a little data loss if it means from now on everything will be working.

What is best for logon script? Batch or VBS and also should i distribute via GP or AD?

I am new to server 2008 and think i should start to get up to scratch with new more reliable methods.

I have some questions about upgrading from Server 2003 64bit Enterprise with Exchange 2007 to Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise 64 Bit and once that is done i will update exchange 2007 to 2010.

Should i create a new Question?

Removing PC's which could not see the Domain and Re Adding them fixed this.

Should i create a new Question?

it will help